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Nonresidents to Be Told Where to Invest
The destiny of the bill on foreign investments in strategic industries of economy will be decided this week. Vladimir Putin convenes March 4 a meeting dedicated to the final wording of the document. The second reading in the State Duma has been slated for March 19 but it is likely to be put off again and the better part of the document has been changed in the recent months. The latest amendments strip investors of control over their investments in the government’s strategic producers of raw materials.
The second reading of the bill on restrictions on foreign investments in strategic industries and of a few other bills that has been slated for March 19 will be probably put off, said Martin Shakkum, head of State Duma’s Committee for Construction and Land Relations.
The profile committee of the State Duma hasn’t deliberated on amendments. The key discussion goes on not in the parliament but rather in the RF Industry and Energy Ministry, Economic Development and Trade Ministry, FSB, the government. The amendments currently account for more than 60 percent of the text passed in the first reading. The amendments to the Subsoil Bill and other bills exceed the initial wording by 85 percent to 90 percent. Those are the new bills in essence.
And the drastic changes are of concept nature. In addition to toughening requirements to the sold stakes (starting from a blocking stake to between 5 percent and 10 percent on average), the new sections spell out specific procedures for the deals made by nonresidents with the stocks of the companies owning the Earth resources of federal significance, on checking non-residents’ control over strategic enterprises and on widening the list of the latter.
The amendments to the Subsoil Bill, for instance, provide for setting up in Russia a Federal Fund for Reserved Subsoil, which is to be distributed by the government. Any transfer of the so-called federal area to a company, where a nonresident owns over 10 percent, could be effected provided the government sanctions it. The offshore fields of this kind could be developed only by the companies with the government’s share of above 50 percent.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Mar. 03, 2008
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